


We're going to be

by KirstieJ



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Hephaestus, Post-Space, Tags may be added, readjusting to life on earth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 01:33:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12223032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirstieJ/pseuds/KirstieJ
Summary: Some short snippets from the lives of the crew of the Hephaestus, post-mission. Focus thus far is Eiffel and Minkowski and their adjustment to life on earth





	1. Okay

**Author's Note:**

> I'm know there are tons of fics out there about what their lives are like after the mission and I've read a good few of them and i love them so this is my personal take on it, or at least one of them because I have a LOT of Ideas. 
> 
> if it seems a little shippy between Eiffel and Minkowski that's because I ship them whoops. I do think it can still be read as platonic at the moment so interpret it how you will.

Renée lifted her head from the pillow, then pushed her body upwards, arm pressed into the mattress. She took a quick breath, calling out, “Hera? Hera? Is everything okay? What’s that noise?”

Next to her, Doug slowly blinked open his eyes. “Minkowski?” he questioned softly.

“Huh?” Renée looked down at him in the darkness, eyes wide.

“Hera’s… not here right now,” Doug reminded her, voice still quiet.

“Oh,” Renée said, licking her lips. She nodded her head. “Right,” she muttered, then laid her head and body back down.

Doug shifted onto his side, reaching over to lay his arm across her middle. She curled a little closer to him, shutting her eyes tight.

“I think the noise is just the sink running in the next apartment over, by the way,” Eiffel supplied a moment or two later.

“Yeah,” Minkowski murmured. She wiggled herself closer, pressing her forehead against his chest. He tightened his arm around her waist, leaning his cheek against her hair for a moment.

“I miss her, too,” Doug said another minute later.

“I know,” Renée said. “It’s only been, what… a week?”

“Something like that,” Doug shrugged his shoulder.

“Fuck,” Renée muttered softly.

“I know,” Doug said with a sigh. “Go back to sleep, hm?”

“I’ll try,” Renée grumbled. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and tried, tried, tried, to let her consciousness slip away. It took a while, but she managed.

It was hard for Doug to get to sleep afterwards, as well. They hadn’t been back to earth long, and he didn’t know what he’d expected it would be like to return but… it wasn’t what he thought it would be.

Here he was, his arms curled around his _former_ commander, his other friends both carted away to facilities somewhere. Hell, he should be lucky he was allowed to be released after all he had experienced. They’d all been through at least a week or so of tests and evaluations, with Hera and Lovelace being kept back to gather more information. There were promises to Eiffel and Minkowski that the other two would be allowed to leave as soon as the remaining tests were performed, and, in Hera’s case, appropriate technological measures were taken to design a permanent physical space, which they were still technically finding.

This was a temporary place, the apartment they were currently occupying. Doug had no idea how long they would be here.

He startled when he heard loud noises from outside the building. He felt Minkowski shift abruptly under his arm and heard her as she hissed “Hera” again.

Doug let his arm slide from her middle as she squirmed more. This time, she sat up fully, hugging her knees.

“She’s coming back,” Doug whispered, unsure of whether he believed it or not.

“I know,” Renée murmured. “She’ll be back soon,” she assured him. Another few beats passed and she let her knees slide down onto the bed, lying back. “Did I wake you again?”

“No. I didn’t fall back asleep.”

“Doug,” Renée said, still sounding incredibly tired.

“I tried,” he promised.

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hey Siri.. what time is it?” Renée asked. A voice, familiar in some ways yet largely unfamiliar in general, responded from the phone sitting on the end table.

“It is 7:43 AM.”

“Shit, really? I thought it was earlier than that,” Renée yawned as she spoke.

“Excuse me, Minkowski? Anytime before 8am is still early.”

“I said _earlier_ , Doug.” She sighed, staring up at the ceiling. She could get up, now. Put on a pot of actual coffee. Stare at the wall in the living room instead of the one in the bedroom. She wasn’t sure there was a point.

Doug just shut his eyes again, too tight to feel relaxed. He was in the same boat, unable to really believe he could fall asleep again but unwilling to get out of the bed.

And so they stayed, lying there.

“We’ve been without Hera for varying periods of time, before,” Renée reasoned.

“I guess,” Doug muttered.

“Yeah, it’s different, but,” Renée sucked in a breath through her teeth. “I dunno where I was going with that.”

“It’s okay, commander.”

“I’m not-"

“I know. Minkowski. Renée. Whatever,” Doug huffed and moved to his back, joining her in staring at the ceiling.

A moment or two passed, stretching in the silence between them.

“Doug?”

“Yeah?’  

“You want coffee?”

He took in a deep breath through his nose, thinking. “Always, c- Renée. I always want coffee.”

“Alright.” She said, and sat up. She might not have been able to bring Hera back, to confront what they faced together, or stand to hear Eiffel refer to her as “commander” any longer. But she could make coffee. She could stare at walls, she could watch mindless TV, she could let Doug hold her and hold him back because they were a lot more touch-starved that they realized while spending every day thinking they might die in space.  

And, as she would tell herself… she could be okay. And so could he. They could get Hera back, and Lovelace, and they could all heal together. Someday.  


	2. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minkowski decides she needs to clean. Eiffel decides to help.

As Eiffel trailed out into the living room, he squinted. It took him a few moments to fully comprehend _why_ he was squinting as he looked around himself.

He was squinting because of the bright light pouring in from the windows, because the curtains were drawn.

It occurred to him, at that moment, he hadn’t exactly recognized the fact they had windows. Yeah, he’d seen the curtains there, but they might as well have been weirdly patterned parts of the wall. It had never clicked that he could pull back the curtains and reveal the world outside.

Another piece of sensory information that made itself known to him (albeit in a delayed fashion) was the music floating from what he thought was the end table. He glanced over and, surely enough, there was a cellphone on the table blaring the music from it’s speaker.

Crossing the living room, he peeked into the kitchen. The curtains were drawn in there, too, sun filtering into the space. There, he saw Minkowski with a rag, sweeping her arm across the cupboard doors with vigor. She was jumping a little, trying to reach the top of the one she was working on.

“Hey,” Eiffel greeted.

“Hi,” Minkowski said, not even looking over as she jumped a little more. She huffed, then moved to try and climb up onto the counter.

“Um, why don’t I just…” Eiffel took a step next to her, reaching and taking the cloth from her hand. She then looked over at him, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail (well, messy by her normal standards; to him it looked fine). She watched as he looked up at the cupboard and leaned into the counter, reaching the area that she was trying to get to and above it.

“Well. Okay. You can keep doing that, then,” Minkowski told him, satisfied. She then bent to the cupboard under the sink and grabbed a spray bottle containing a blue liquid and another cloth. She went over to the window and spritzed some cleaning solution onto it.

“But I was gonna make coffee,” Eiffel whined.

“There’s already coffee on,” Minkowski says. “Can’t you smell it?”

“Not really. All I smell is lemon. Which, I take, is the cleaning supplies, now that you mention it.”

“Yeah, probably. We’ve been here a month now and we _still_ haven’t even wiped down the walls.”

“Is that even a thing people do? Wash their walls?”

“Yes, Doug. Yes it is,” Minkowski told him, rolling her eyes. “Get your coffee if you want, then, I’ll just climb on the counter to do the other side,” she said, moving to the next window.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Eiffel said, looking around. He spotted a bowl she had set out, presumably containing the cleaning solution she was using for the cupboards. He dipped the cloth into it and moved to the other side of the counter to wash them. When the song changed over, he started humming along.

While he did that, Minkowski went over to the cupboard they’d just washed and grabbed a mug, taking it over to the coffee pot on the top of the shelf next to the counter. She filled it, then added one spoon of sugar, stirred, and set it on the counter near Doug. By now, she was beginning to hum along with him and the song. Then, she trailed into the living room and started to clean the sliding patio doors that had been so long covered by the curtains.

She stood up on her toes to reach the top of it, just managing to get the edge of the glass door. She huffed again as she stretched her arm, moving it in a wave-like motion as she wiped away the layer of whatever grim was on it.

A few minutes later, Doug trailed into the living room with her, sipping his coffee. He wandered to the end table and switched the song to something he believed to be better and put down his mug, going over to the wall beside the entryway to the kitchen and using the rag to wash the surface. This close to it, he could see little speckles of god-knows-what, dirt that they probably inherited when they first got this place a month ago, as Minkowski had mentioned.

Renée started humming along, again, to Doug’s choice of song. She went back to the kitchen to rinse off her rag and dip it back into the bowl she’d originally been using, having noticed some similar speckles on the wall next to the door that she wanted to get rid of. When she returned to the living room, she was graced with Eiffel’s voice.

_“I didn´t think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean. But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine,”_ Doug sang along lowly, bobbing his head to the song as he cleaned an area that he didn’t even see any weird dirt on.

Renée smiled a little, stepping over to start a new area of the window to work on. She decided to pick up a few moments after Doug trailed off, singing, “ _Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.”_

A second later, he joined her in singing, glancing over his shoulder to smile. She looked over after he did, and returned the smile more brightly than she’d smiled since they got there. For a few moments, they went back to their respective cleaning.

However, at the next chorus, Doug tossed his rag towards a chair near the sliding doors and grabbed Renee’s arm, gently tugging her away from the wall. She gave him a strange look for a split second before recognizing what he was trying to do, stuffing her cloth into the pocket of her jeans. He pulled her closer and they allowed their bodies to sway to the music.

At the same moment, they both began to sing along badly, and loudly. Doug spun her around and she laughed, more joyous than she’d sounded in, fuck, many months. Maybe ever? To Doug’s ear, she certainly sounded happier now than she did when they first got back to Earth, at least. It was only little over a month or so, of course.

Her hand landed on his shoulder and he pulled her closer still, starting some aimless paired dance as they bopped to the music together. They sang through the rest of the song, Doug twirling her once more as they laughed.

Another song started to fill the air as their laughter died out, and Renée pulled the cloth out of her pocket to turn back to the wall, an extra skip in her step, more pep to the way she moved. Doug grinned and went to pick up his cloth, going back to dip it into the water.

He started singing along to the next song, stopping briefly when he got to the living room to take another swig of his coffee before picking another spot on the wall to wipe down.

The two of them continued to clean, taking random breaks now and again to sing and dance. They moved on to new tasks without any specific prompting, Doug eventually grabbing the broom to sweep in the living as Renée wiped out their microwave and put away the dishes still hanging around in their drying rack.

A couple hours passed, and they wordlessly decided it was about time to flop down on the couch, Renée having poured two glasses of some cheap lemonade that was on sale when she picked up groceries.

“I think we’re doing good,” Doug said, looking over at her.

“Yeah. It feels better, anyway,” Renée nodded twice.

“Yeah,” Doug agreed. “Nice to let some sunlight in,” he observed.

“Yeah,” Renée echoed, “that’s what I was thinking.”

They let the silence fall over them, and it wasn’t uncomfortable. After a minute or two, Doug slug his arm over the back of the couch, leaning towards Renée a little more. She shifted towards him as well, and in another moment or two they were pressed gently against each other. She heaved a sigh and he lifted his hand to smooth back her hair.

“I miss Lovelace,” Renée murmured, apropos of nothing.

“Mmh,” Doug made a noise of affirmation. “Same.”

Another stretch of silence passed between them, before Renée spoke up again. “Do you want to watch a movie tonight?”

“Um,” Doug started, pausing only for dramatics. “Of course. Always, commander. Minkowski. Renée. Whoever you are.”

She made a quiet noise of amusement. “What movie do you want to watch?”

“You’re letting me pick?”

“How about.. you give me three or four options and I’ll choose from them?”

“Excellent idea, com-rade. Friend. Yep,” Doug huffed. “That’s what I meant to say. Renée. Anyway, good idea.”

“I have those, sometimes.”

“About 90% more often than I do,” Doug laughed and she leaned away from his body to fix him with a look. “What?”

“Your ideas are good, too.”

“Hah, yeah. Okay.”

“I’m being serious.”

“I can tell, commander. Fuck. Minkowski.”

“At least you’re saying my name right, now,” Renée said with a shrug, and his face lit up a little. She couldn’t help but smile.

“I have been trying _really_ hard.”

“I know,” Renée continued to smile, patting his cheek. “I’m proud of you.”

Doug blinked at her for a second. “Thank you,” he said, after another beat. “For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you, too.”

“Thanks, Eiffel,” Renée looked around herself. She still wanted to get to cleaning the bathroom, and maybe putting on a round of laundry. They were starting to get desperate, really, just yesterday she’d elected to wear one of Doug’s stupid graphic tees. She glanced back at him, noticing the solemnity in his eyes. “I’m proud of us, you know,” she said without much forethought. “All of us. Hera and Lovelace. Hell, even Jacobi, wherever the hell he is now.”

“We did it, didn’t we?”

“Yeah,” Renée said. “We did.” With that, she settled back into his side and this time he curled his arm around her shoulder. They’d escaped, they’d survived. They’d defied the odds that Goddard laid for them, stacked against them. They may not have cleaned for an entire month, they may still struggle to sleep through the night, and they may not have seen the other members of their team since they were separated, but the hardest part was truly over. They did it.


	3. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lovelace is finally being released from Goddard facilities, and they all get a chance to talk to Hera again before taking Lovelace "home".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went a little buckwild with this one... It's reallly fun to write their group dynamic. 
> 
> Things get very obviously minlace though there are still some tones and mentions of minffel here bc I am a multi/polyshipper or whatever. Things are also a little flirty between Doug and Hera but no more than canon?

Renée was standing with her back straight, arms crossed over her chest. It was strange for Doug to see her so rigid after more than a month of lazing around an apartment together. It took him back to when they first met, right before the mission started. She had been so stony faced and professional. She intimidated him, back then. Honestly, she still did, sometimes; not that he would admit it.

He understood why she was so stiff, now, seeing as the situation they were in was not a very comfortable one.

Standing inside a Goddard Futuristics meeting room almost felt like being in the belly of the beast, even now.  

They had been invited to sit, but Minkowski swiftly refused. Eiffel wasn’t about to contradict her, so he stood silently by. The person who showed them to the room had left a few minutes prior.

The clock on the wall ticked on and on, neither of them saying a word.

In quick succession, Doug heard another few things, in addition to the clock. The door clicked, Renée’s breath caught audibly, boots tapped on the floor as someone entered the room.

“Lovelace,” Renée gasped, and her form broke entirely as she stepped forward and pulled Isabel into a crushing hug, taking in a shuttering breath. Doug, and the random Goddard employee who had escorted Isabel to the room, watched on as the two women embraced.

“Miss me, much?” Lovelace asked, sounding amused, but nobody missed how her voice shook.

“God, did we ever,” Renée said, with the utmost sincerity. She leaned back and looked at Isabel’s face.

“I… me too, Minkowski,” Isabel murmured, quiet. She licked her lips and sucked in a breath. Renée brought her hand to Isabel’s cheek, thumb ready for the tear that threatened to fall. “I…” she trailed off again.

“It’s okay,” Renée said, quietly. Lovelace ducked back down and buried her face in Minkowski’s shoulder, holding her ever tighter.

“Wasn’t sure I’d ever actually get to see you again,” Lovelace mumbled, barely audible.

“I know. But we’re here,” Renée said, gentle, stroking Lovelace’s hair. She felt Isabel nod against her. A few moments later, Isabel lifted her head, and sniffed. She wasn’t fully crying, not really, but a few tears had escaped.

“Eiffel!” Lovelace barked, sudden. “What are you doing just standing around, looking dumb? Get over here.”

“Oh, uh, sorry. Was trying to let you guys have your moment, geeze,” Doug took a couple of wide strides to close the distance at Isabel’s demand.

“Well, we’ve had one. Come on,” Lovelace removed one arm from around Renée, reaching out to Doug. He joined their hug, wrapping his arm around the two women. They stood like that for another minute or two before they finally broke it up. The three of them were misty-eyed, but overall fairly composed.

“Anyway,” Lovelace said, her hands on her hips. She sniffed once. “I guess we should get a move on.”

“Good idea,” Renée said, and Doug smiled, unable to contain his excitement even as they were standing around a Goddard meeting room.

“Um, if you’ll just follow me,” the random Goddard employee stated, calling their attention. The three of them trailed out of the room and down the hall, following the employee. The trek wasn’t exactly short, and they passed many other random Goddard folk as they went, but nobody that they recognized. Thankfully.

“So, um, the Census Series AI number 214 has been temporarily hooked up here. Um, your case worker isn’t around today, but I’ve been told to remind you about finding more permanent housing? I haven’t been given details of what’s going on with you guys, but, she told me Goddard Futuristics is dedicated to ‘reconciling your situation’, so the team will be in contact with you about getting a place for yourselves and uh… Hera? Is that her name?”

“Yes, Hera,” Doug answered.

“Yeah. So. There’s that.”

“Mhm,” Isabel crossed her arms over her chest. “Can we go in and talk to her now, or?”

“Oh, yes. By all means.”

“Fucking finally,” Doug muttered under his breath and reached for the door, bursting into the room like his life depended on it. “Hera, are you there?” he called.

“Doug?!” her voice came immediately, sounding more excited than he’d ever heard her before. It wasn’t as loud, her speakers not as powerful here as they were on the ship.

“Hera, _baby_ , oh! I have missed you. How are you doing?” Doug asked, a hand on his chest. A screen lit up at the far side of the room and he moved closer to it. It seemed her speakers were in that direction, too.

“I’ve been better,” Hera confessed, “but I’ve also been much worse. I’ve missed you, too.”

“It’s good to hear your voice again,” Minkowski said, trailing in behind Eiffel.

“The gang’s all here, huh?” Lovelace smiled just a little, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“We survived! I’d like to say I knew we would, but, uh, I had my doubts,” Hera said, though she sounded more amused than anything.

“I think we all did,” Eiffel said. “Somehow, we made it, though.”

“It’s a miracle,” Renée said, dry but honest.

“Truly,” Eiffel agreed.

“So, what have you been up to?” Hera started, but then continued on without waiting for an answer. “I was offline for at least a week or two while they did some tests, and then another week or so of doing tests with me _on_ line, and now I’ve just been sitting her bored out of my circuits waiting on whatever is next. I mean, I have more internet access than I used to, but less stuff to monitor.”

“I’m sorry it’s taking so long to get you out of here,” Doug told her. “Apparently, we gotta go, like… house hunting? For a place they can wire you into? Honestly, I feel no less lost than I did floating in space with, regard to, like, what is happening with my life.”

“If we’re sharing, I’ll admit I feel _more_ lost nowadays than I did floating in space,” Minkowski chimed in.

“Retweet,” Isabel said with a small sigh. “I just can’t believe…” she trailed off, scuffing her foot on the ground.

“Hm?” Hera questioned, and everyone waited.

“Nothing, it’s just. We’re just taking everything Goddard is giving us, no complaints, no questions?”

“What choice do we have?” Doug asked, tilting his head.

“Tell them to go fuck themselves? Fight? I don’t know, Eiffel, it just- never mind, I don’t even _want_ to be talking about this right now, I just can’t think of any other goddamn thing. But, right now we’re visiting Hera, and we don’t have all the time in the world, so let’s drop it.”

“Uh.. okay?” Doug said. “Sure. Uh. You asked what we’ve been up to, Hera?”

“You’re right, I did! Then didn’t give you any opportunity to tell me. Oops!”

“That’s alright, it’s adorable that you’re excited to talk to us.”

“Why _wouldn’t_ I be? You are my best friends. And, now, pretty much the only people I know. But, still, you’d be my best friends otherwise, too.”

“Awh, Hera. You’re just so sweet.”

“So are you! But, for real, okay. We’re useless, Doug. Commander, you tell me what you’ve been up to.”

A few moments of silence passed. Minkowski glanced at the ground, obviously acting like she hadn’t heard it, and nobody said anything.

“Minkowski?”

“Huh?”

“I said, tell me what you’ve been up to, commander,” Hera chirped.

“I... I’m not your commander, anymore. I’m not anybody’s commander. _You_ don’t have a commander. Hera.”

“Huh.. I suppose you’re right, Renée. Renée?”

“That is my name, after all.”

“Right once again, Renée. Okay. I’ll use it, then. How have you been, Renée?”

“Thank you, Hera. I’ve been… well. Doug and I have mostly just been hanging out? At, uh, home, if either one of us would be willing to call it that. We’ve been missing you, and Lovelace. We cleaned the entire place a couple weeks ago, and tidied up when we found out they were finally letting Lovelace leave these stupid facilities. We’ve watched a lot of movies.”

“So many movies,” Doug said, dreamily. “Yeah, we’ve been, uh, okay. As Minkowski said, we missed you, and Lovelace, a lot. It’ll be good to have her back and I cannot wait until you can get moved out of here.”

“Likewise. They said they might be able to wire me into your phones, too, and that could happen before the move, so we’d at least be able to talk.”

“What?! That would be sick!” Doug grinned.

“Who is ‘they’?” Lovelace asked, brow perked.

“Oh, Goddard goons. Scientists. None of them are, like, Alana Maxwells or anything, or, God forbid, fucking _Miranda Pryces_. They’re smart, and restrictions have been put on me, but it was a group effort. And I will admit I have been, hm, _cooperative_ with them, for the most part. If their promises start to seem more empty, we may have to worry, but for now they’ve only done what they said they would.”

“Hm. I’d still be careful,” Lovelace said, he voice low.

“Oh, you know I am,” Hera said, lowering her voice as well.

“For them to wire you into our phones, they’d have to take them, right?”

“Um… yes, probably.”

“Hm,” Lovelace tapped her foot on the ground. “Dunno how much I like that idea. The less they touch, the better.”

“I mean,” Doug started, “they’re going to have to wire Hera into the house, which means they’re going to be _in_ the house.”

“Yes, well,” Isabel’s face twisted into a frown, “I mean, you’re obviously under the assumption I’m going to be _moving in,_ but I’ve not exactly said I would. Today, of course, you’re taking me wherever ‘home’ currently is, but after that…”

“Wait, you’re not staying with us?” Renée asked, her own face dropping.

“I haven’t decided,” Lovelace said, lifting her hands. “Look, girlie- and Eiffel, I guess. We three have a _lot_ to talk about. I don’t want to take all of Hera’s airtime, we can discuss this when we get... ‘home’.”

“Okay,” Minkowski said, soft.

“Oh, so I get to miss all the hot goss? This is so unfair,” Hera whined.

“I mean, _I’ll_ give them my phone to get you wired in, so I can always just put the speaker on to keep you in the loop, once that happens,” Doug told Hera. “And, for the record, I’m sticking by you no matter what, even if Goddard has to help with the initial step I’m _sure_ we can… work with things after the fact. Not that we should be discussing details of our issues with this organization while standing in the middle of their facilitates but, y’know.”

“That’s a fair point,” Lovelace crossed her arms back over her chest. “Again, we can get into the details later. For now,” Lovelace glanced back at the door, where the random Goddard employee was waiting, on their phone.

“Yeah, we should keep things general,” Hera agreed. “So, you’ve watched a lot of movies. Cleaned up. Sounds like very fun, interesting, human-like things to do.”

“Yeah,” Renée said with a shrug. “We’ve been... managing,” she said, looking over at Doug.

“That’s a good word for it,” Doug nodded. They’d done nearly nothing but watch tv, stare at walls, lie in various positions either in their living room or one of the bedrooms (they had actually attempted to sleep in separate rooms, initially. It hadn’t lasted long). “I have not yet gotten sick of pizza, but I think Minkowski has.”

“Ugh. If I see another slice of pineapple and ham before at least two more weeks are up, I’m gonna barf.” 

Lovelace snorted, “If I _ever_ saw a slice of pineapple and ham, I’d-”

“Hey!” Doug cut her off, “Don’t hate. We can always order half and half, doesn’t mean you have to rip on somebody’s food of choice. Besides, pineapple on pizza is the food of the Gods! Renée, back me up here.”

“Oh, you’re going by first names, too?” Lovelace asked, quirking her eyebrow again.

“I mean… why not? We’re effectively roommates. I don’t see the point in sticking to last names only,” Minkowski told her.

“To be fair, I’m terrible at remembering not to call her commander. She’s even trying to implement a jar system where I have to cough up change every time I say it.”

“We can use the funds for something fun! Like a movie, or fancier coffee than we usually get. And you’ll finally learn to use my name and not a meaningless title that doesn’t apply to me, or our relationship, anymore.”

“Pft, yeah, whatever. Our incomes are currently coming from _Goddard_ and they are _pooled_ so it doesn’t make any sense for me to be tossing change into a jar when all of our money is just, like, there, and together, and the same amount.”

“Well, maybe we could make the jar a... chores jar, or favours jar, or something. Every time you call me commander, you have to own it, and you have do something I tell you to do, no matter what.”

“Oh, I like that idea,” Lovelace chimed in. “Can I join in if he ever messes up and calls me captain?”

“Yes,” Renée said.

“Hey, I never agreed to this! And I won’t even call you captain, capt- shit! Isabel. I will not be calling you captain, Isabel,” Doug slowed his speech, gesturing with his hands to emphasize that he was serious about this.

“I didn’t say you could call me that,” Lovelace said, clicking her tongue.

“But.. it’s your name? What am I supposed to call you, then?” Doug tilted his head and Lovelace laughed.

“I’m fucking with you. Of course you can call me Isabel,” she rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. Doug was glad for that, even if it was at his expense.

“Okay. Hmm, how about… Izzy?”

“Nah, son.”

“I am.. older than you? Wait, am I older than you? No, actually, you’re probably older than me. Not old enough to be my mother, though.”

“I have missed you idiots _so_ much,” Hera said suddenly, eliciting a joyous laugh from Doug.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying our company, Hera. Even with all of our stupid bickering.”

“Honestly, if she expected anything different, her ability to assess likely outcomes would have had to have been greatly diminished somewhere along the way,” Renée pointed out.

“Um, yeah, for real. It’s actually kind of comforting, to hear it. It feels… familiar. But, the stakes are a lot lower, so it’s nice,” Hera said. “Wow, also, it’s such a weird feeling to not be constantly monitoring the likelihood that you’re all going to die.”

“I can relate,” Renée said. “It’s hard to know what to do with yourself when you’re suddenly not in survival-mode anymore.”

“Yeah, really,” Doug muttered.

“I would not say I’m out of survival-mode, quite yet,” Isabel added, scuffing her foot on the ground again.

“Hey, that’s understandable,” Doug said, looking over to her. “I mean, you’ve been going through whatever the fuck they’ve been putting you through in here, so.”

“I guess,” Lovelace shrugged one shoulder.

“Um-” a voice came from the opposite side of the room, in the doorway. “We are going to have to wrap it up here, I, uh, have some other things to get done today, and since I’m the one assigned to monitor you three, er -four, I guess- your time is almost up.”

“Okay,” Doug said with a heavy sigh. “I guess this is goodbye, for now,” his voice and face were glum.

“It’s ‘see you soon’,” Minkowski said.

“Of course!” Hera said. “I will miss you, but don’t worry. Another thing I can do when I’m incredibly bored is just… put myself into a more automatic processing mode, sort of like sleeping, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” Doug said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “We’re gonna try to set up whatever the fuck Goddard wants us to set up as soon as we can, Hera. I won’t leave you here any longer than absolutely necessary, I promise.”

“I know, Doug,” Hera told him with a soft voice.

“See you, Hera,” Isabel said.

“Goodbye, you lovely people,” Hera told him. “I’ll be seeing you again soon!”

“Yes, definitely. See you, baby,” Doug said, and made a kissing noise before the three of them left the room.

They were led out of the Goddard building by the same employee, whose name none of them had even bothered to ask. The employee gave Lovelace the bags of stuff Goddard was providing for her, and the three of them left the building. They piled into the car, and Minkowksi demanded they all put on their seatbelts before she would put the car in drive. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she turned and asked Isabel what her favourite meal was, saying they could pick up the ingredients on the way ‘home’.

Isabel thought about it for a while, then decided she wanted stuffed French toast with bacon, real coffee, chocolate, and some good cheese to balance it out. They grabbed some additional things while they were in the store, leaving with quite the haul (and quite the bill, but it was on Goddard’s dime for now and none of them cared about that).

Renée drove them to the place she and Eiffel have been tentatively and temporarily calling “home”. She parked in their spot and loaded her arms with groceries. Eiffel took one less bag, so he could hold out the keys and let them into their building, and then into their second-floor apartment.

“Home sweet home!” he announced, coming into the hall that was right next to their kitchen, as well as the entryway to their living room. “I can give you a very brief tour, Caappp- fuck. Dammit. Isabel. If _Renée_ wants to start putting away the food.”

“Sounds good,” Renée said, putting her bags on the table. Doug put his down as well, and Isabel nodded her head, looking around herself.

“This is the kitchen!” Doug proclaimed, holding his arms out. “Got our trusty coffee machine right there, she gets a _lot_ of use, all hours of the day, because we’ve been absolute shit at sleeping in this here household.”

“Fair enough,” Isabel said.

“In through here,” Doug said, beginning to walk forward, “is the living room. We have a couch, also gets a lot of use, the TV, similarly well-used, a desk that neither of us have sat at, uh.. there’s plenty space on the shelves if you have anything you want to display, we haven’t gotten around to decorating. Renée keeps saying she’s gonna get books, but… she hasn’t. And, there’s a door to the little balcony thing behind those curtains.”

“Gotcha.”

“Yeah, so, right ahead of you is the hall, which lead to the bathroom and two bedrooms,” Doug started down the hall, gesturing to the bathroom as he said it. “Um. Minkowski and I have actually been sharing, so, you get a room all to yourself. We did have a bunch of random stuff in there but we cleared it out yesterday,” Doug told her, opening up the door to the bedroom to his right. It had a simple bed in the corner, and it was neat and tidy.

“Our room is way less clean, much to Renée’s dismay,” Doug snickered, opening the door ahead of him. Isabel poked her head into the door and chuckled along with him. Their laundry basket was overflowing, the bed unmade, and there were more than a few random knickknacks on the bedside table as well as the floor. Their curtains were not drawn, making the room pretty dim.

 “I kinda like it,” Isabel said.

“Oh?”

“It’s just… it feels lived in, you know?” she said with a shrug.

“Yeah, fair enough, I guess. I should probably go help Renée with the groceries, unless I’ve stalled enough that she has them all away by now, which would be ideal.”

“You lazy fuck,” Isabel said, but there was affection in her voice.

“Some things never change, oh captain my captain,” Eiffel smiled widely at her, and she smiled back, but it still wasn’t reaching her eyes entirely. “You can put your stuff in your room, if you want. I mean, or not. It’s your place, too, for now at least. So, feel free to do what you want!”

“I know, Eiffel,” she said. “Officer,” she added with a wink. He chuckled at her. She turned and went to put her bags in the room, shutting the door behind her. Eiffel wandered out of the hall and went into the kitchen, helping Minkowski with the last of the groceries.

Renée immediately put Eiffel to work helping her start the food. She put him on bacon as she started on the French toast, the two of them moving about easily, used to being in each other’s spaces.

Isabel eventually trailed back into the kitchen, offering to help as well. Renée told her to relax. It was _for_ her, her “welcome home” dinner, she shouldn’t have to help make it. Isabel laughed at her, but didn’t push the issue.

“How do you like your bacon?” Doug asked, pushing it around in the pan. “Chewy? Cripsy? Burnt?”

“Between chewy and crispy,” Lovelace told him. After a few minutes of sitting there watching them, she sighed, then her eyes lit up. She reached for Doug’s jacket, hanging on the chair next to hers, and started to root in the pocket. He glanced over in time to notice what she was doing and knit his brows.

“Um, what the hell are you doing?” he asked, watching her.

“Knew it,” Lovelace said, producing a package of cigarettes from the second pocket she checked. She rooted a little more until she found a lighter and then flipped open the package, pulling out one cigarette before she slipped the box back into his pocket and stood up.

“Hey, those are mine,” Doug said weakly as he reached over to turn the stove off, as the bacon had reached the desired level of ‘cooked’.

“You can spare _one_ ,” Isabel said, rolling her eyes.

“If you quit, she couldn’t steal them from you,” Renée said in a judgemental tone.

“Excuse me, you’ve _also_ stolen my cigarettes at times.”

“I couldn’t steal them either, if you stopped buying them.”

“That is the most hypocritical thing I have ever heard you say.”

“Hm, doubtful, though I guess I usually do make an effort not to be a hypocrite. In this case, I don’t care.”

As they two of them bickered, Lovelace made her way to the living room and out onto the balcony. She lit up the cigarette and leaned against the railing, staring at it between her fingers.

Doug just groaned, looked at the bacon, and then at his jacket where it’d been left on the back of the chair. He turned the burner off before he went over, grabbed the package out of it, and slipped it into his back pocket. He followed Lovelace outside.

He regarded her for a moment, standing a couple feet back. “If you’re gonna steal it from me, you could at _least_ actually smoke it.”

She didn’t look up from her place hanging over the balcony. “It’s a cancer-causing stick of disgusting chemicals,” Lovelace said, rolling it between her fingers. She lifted it to her lips and took a drag.

“Didn’t know you even smoked,” Doug commented as he walked over to her. She coughed, and offered it over to him. He accepted, taking a long drag, much more smoothly than her.

“I haven’t, not in a long time. And, uh, I never really smoked _cigarettes_ much at all. Only when I was drinking, y’know, at parties. When everyone else was doing it.”

“I see,” Doug said. “Relatable enough,” he shrugged. He took another drag, and offered it back to her. She accepted it.

“I doubt I’ll be stealing many more from you, so don’t worry. I… I don’t even know why I wanted it so badly.”

“It’s okay, Isabel,” Doug said, his voice soft.

“Yeah,” she muttered, and lifted it to her lips again before handing it back to them. They shared the rest of it in silence. “Has Minkowski seriously been doing this shit, too?”

“I’m a terribly influence, apparently,” Doug said, lifting his hands, palms facing upwards.

“Somehow, I don’t think that’s all you,” Isabel assured him.

“Eh, who knows? We… I dunno, we talk, but, probably not enough.”

“I’m sure it will come out when it needs to. It always does, especially when it seems like the actual universe is what’s forcing you to talk.”

“Heh, honest to god, huh?” Eiffel held the package of cigarettes in his hands, considering grabbing another. He decided against it, slipping it back into his pocket once again. “Hopefully the food is almost ready.”

“Yeah, I can’t wait for a half-decent meal,” Isabel said, and the two of them went inside.

Renée had just put the coffee on, and it was starting to brew. The food was all cooked, but still on the stove to be kept warm. She was cutting up the cheese, and had laid out the plates on the table already.

“It smells _amazing_ in here,” Lovelace commented.

“And you two smell like disgusting smoke,” Renée told them.

“Again, you’ve been smoking over the past month, too, so you really don’t have any place to talk,” Doug pointed out with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah, like, a grand total of four times. Hardly counts.”

“It still does!” Doug said, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Ugh, children, please. I miss your idiocy as much as Hera does, but, can’t we just play nice for a little while?”

The two of them looked at each other, then at Isabel.

“You’re right, we shouldn’t fight. I’ll lay off on the smoking thing,” Renée said.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” Doug said, nodding at Renée. She gave him a small smile.

“See? Isn’t kissing and making up fun?” Isabel asked.

Renée snorted. “Exactly when did you see us kiss?”

“Semantics,” Isabel waved a hand. “Is the food almost ready?”

“Yes! Actually, the food is done, and the coffee should be almost ready, too. I’ll grab some mugs,” Renée turned and did so, pulling out three mugs. She put them out, and then grabbed the sugar and got the cream from the fridge to put on the table. She poured the coffee, while Doug and Isabel picked up their plates and went to get some food. Renée put the mugs in front of each spot, and then went to get her food once the other two sat down. Doug added some sugar to his coffee and they waited for Renée to sit down to start to dig in.

The first few moments there was near silence, everyone too occupied with their food to bother trying to keep up any idle chat. The first one to speak was Isabel, about halfway through the food on her plate.

“This is _so_ good, Renée. Like. I could kiss you right now,” she said, and Renée let out a little noise of surprise and possibly amusement. “In fact,” Isabel said slowly, a smirk slipping onto her face. She stood up at her spot, leaning over the table towards Renée. She took Renée’s chin in one hand, pressing her lips to the other woman’s for a few moments, lingering. When Isabel pulled back, Renée followed her, they kissed once more before Renée settled back into her chair and Isabel sat down.

Doug looked a little dumbfounded, his brows knit. Renée’s face was bright red. He had never seen her blush that badly before, even when they first started crawling into each other’s beds in the middle of the night. While it was like nothing, now, it was initially a source of embarrassment for the both of them. Still, she never looked like she did now.

Isabel simply winked and went back to her meal, while Renée put a hand over half the lower half of her face and stared at her food for a few moments. Although her lips were covered, Doug was pretty sure she was smiling. After another minute or so, Minkowksi picked up her fork again and continued to eat, saying nothing. When they were done, Renée excused herself, and Doug offered to get a start on the dishes. Isabel said she would help, since Minkowski did most of the cooking and the set up.

As soon as Renée disappeared down the hall, Doug turned to Isabel with his brows raised.

“ _That_ was an interesting show,” he commented, stage whispering as he filled the sink.

Isabel shrugged, a smile playing up on her lips. “What can I say? I’m just appreciative.”

“Heh, yeah. I guess. She’s done a lot of stuff for me in the past month but that’s not a way I’ve shown my ‘appreciation’.”

“I thought you two were sleeping together?” Isabel said, raising her brows as she brought over the dishes to dump them into the sudsy water. “If anything, I thought you might be jealous, but I was willing to take that fall.”

“Um, no? We’re sharing a bed, not, y’know…”

“Fucking?”

“Yeah, uh, not that,” Doug muttered, his face bright red as he started to scrub the dishes.

“Huh,” Isabel said, sounding genuinely curious. “I’m surprised. I mean, you’ve been here alone for like a month, right?”

“You know she’s, like, married?”

“I see no Mr. Koudelka here,” Isabel said, leaning against the counter and beginning to dry the dishes Doug was finished washing.

“That doesn’t render their relationship nonexistent, just because he’s not, like, present? I mean… I don’t really know where he is, or if they’ve been in contact. We haven’t really talked about it. At the same time, I haven’t-”

“Hm?” 

“I… I just, I haven’t reached out to my, uh, family, at all, either. And I certainly haven’t talked about that with Minkowski.” 

“You two weren’t kidding when you said you’ve done nothing but watch movies, huh?”

“Not in the _slightest,_ Izzy.”

She nodded, not even bothering to give him crap for the nickname. “I guess it makes sense. It’s really jarring, being back on earth. Well. I don’t know if I can consider myself ‘back’ on earth. I can’t really consider myself to have ever been here before.”

“But you remember being here, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” she said.

They fell quiet.

“Anyway-” Doug said, but then he fell silent again as Renée re-entered the room.

“Thank you both for handling the dishes,” she said, not noticing, or at least acknowledging, any tension in the room.

“No problemo, commander,” Isabel said, her shoulders relaxing when she forced them to.

“Ugh, not you too,” Renée groaned.

“I know what I said,” Isabel smiled at her and Renée rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner. “You’re very welcome, _Renée_ ,” Isabel said, teasing.

“That is more like it,” Renée said, straightening her back.

“Spoken like a true leader,” Isabel continued to smirk.

“Oh, give it up, you,” Renée huffed. “So. In order to truly welcome you into this household, I was thinking we could watch yet another movie tonight. The twist is, you get to pick it! Congratulations, Isabel.”

“I feel welcomed to the family,” Lovelace snorted. “Sounds like a plan. Let us get finished up here and I’ll think of what I want to watch.”

“If you’re unsure, Doug is really good at coming up with suggestions you can pick from,” Renée offered.

“Noted. I think I can come up with something,” Isabel said, nodding her head. “Just give me a few minutes.”

“Of course,” Renée said, before she went into the living room to turn on the television and her laptop. Before long, the other two came in from the kitchen and settled on the couch. Renée almost instantly started taking up Doug’s space, leaning into his side. Another few minutes later, she stretched her legs to the other side, near Isabel. The other woman thought for a moment before she kicked her legs up on top of Renée’s and they shared a small smile.

Doug handled the remote, finding the movie that Isabel requested after a few tries and dead links on the internet. Their television was hooked into the laptop through some remote technology that Goddard provided them, allowing them to find movies to stream either legally or illegally with ease.

The rests of the evening continued on quietly, the three of them watching one more, and then another. Isabel fell asleep halfway through the second one, having migrated closer and closer to Renée so they were effectively all snuggled together.

Doug looked over at the two women, Isabel snoring softly and Renée watching the TV with tired, vacant eyes. Honestly, none of them could complain if they thought about the moments they were sure they’d die in space. As weird as everything felt around them, they did still have one another. They were out of the woods, things may not have been easy, but they were getting better. And Doug knew as well as anybody else that ‘recovery’ was not a linear or simple process. Sure, there were still things that needed to be said, but those things could wait another day. For now, this was good enough.


End file.
